1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the creation, management and distribution of media objects. More specifically, the present invention relates to the creation, management and distribution of media objects using a standards-based, open system approach and central server configuration utilizing J2EE, middleware and/or XML functionality to integrate legacy systems into a web-based environment so that they can be accessed by a variety of contributors to create television broadcasts and associated enhanced media services.
2. Background of the Invention
Television production and/or distribution have remained essentially unchanged for decades. Despite quantum leaps in technology during this timeframe, television remains essentially a box-to-box type environment. In live television, for example, a camera sends a video signal to a production switcher that sends and/or receives video signals to or from videotape- or hard drive-based recording devices for replay and/or playback, digital video effects (DVE) equipment for graphical enhancement and/or a fiber or satellite system for receipt of other video contribution and/or transmission. In recorded television, a camera sends a video signal to a production switcher that sends and/or receives video signals for recording and/or playback, edit facilities for the manipulation of video and graphical elements needed to create the final product, DVEs for creation and contribution of graphical enhancement and/or to videotape and/or hard disk recorders for recording of the final product. The recorded final product is then routed through a switcher and/or video router for transmission. Each of these television paradigms uses a serial presentation of the television programming.
The past few years have seen the emergence of digital video. The rapid growth of the Internet has allowed new techniques for creating, managing and distributing video. However, even with these flexible computing environments, large media companies adhere to the old model regarding terrestrial broadcasting, cable TV and/or Direct to Home (DTH) television networks due to 1) the desire to continue to depreciate existing capital equipment and support systems and/or 2) the complexity and cost associated with replacing and/or integrating all of the related equipment, subsystems and/or applications into a singular automated, IP-enabled system. Although these companies would like to take advantage of the functionality and flexibility allowed by web-based, IP and/or Open systems technologies, obtaining such automation benefits and economics has to date required building a wholly separate IP and/or web-based approach to the creation, management and deployment of video networks.
Developing such systems and/or applications is costly, time-consuming and extremely complex. In addition, due to the proprietary nature of legacy and existing TV systems, they are limited in their ability to integrate with other systems and/or scale, if they can even scale at all. Even after the system and/or application is developed; it may not accurately perform the functionality originally required due to the requirement of integrating numerous proprietary systems and/or applications. This approach results in a practically unmanageable matrix of subsystem interaction and coordination that will result in working out residual bugs and/or adding omitted functionality only adds cost and delay to the effort.
If such applications are not developed, production companies and service providers must continue to rely on legacy systems to provide the needed functionality. Legacy systems are proprietary, usually single-function systems that were developed to perform a particular task. These legacy systems include systems to manage customer/user databases, systems to manage production facilities, systems to control videotape machines, cameras, and lighting and systems to manage a number of other components of television production.
A significant problem with these systems is that they were not designed with any intention to communicate with other systems. Consequently, even small integration can be very difficult and subject to error. As a result, it was generally easier and more cost-effective for each company to develop a legacy system for each television broadcasting function it desired to provide.
Another problem associated with conventional television production is that it is a single object, push technology. That is, when a television program is produced, it is a single video object pushed and/or broadcasted to everyone. Thus, everyone tuned to a particular channel at a particular time has the same viewing experience. There is no individualization or customization associated with this viewing experience. Each viewer sees the same content in the same order in the same manner. Thus, there is no targeting of content to meet the needs of the viewer. For example, each person sees the same advertisements at the same time whether they are of interest or not and whether the person is there to view them or not.
A conventional environment where user interaction and/or user specific customization is provided is the Internet. Internet users often receive content based on user profiles, such as cookies, created by the web sites they visit. As a result, the user's Internet experience is enhanced because they are presented with content that is more likely to be of interest to them at a time when they are likely to see it.
One way this customization is provided in the client-server environment of the Internet is through use of Java server pages (JSPs). In general, the functionality and tools for presenting web pages to users are located in a central server or facility. When a user makes a request through the web-based structure of the Internet, the request will generally encounter a JSP. The JSP provides a means to present particular content to a particular user. In this manner, the Internet can customize the viewing experience for each user. For example, the JSP can utilize enterprise Java beans (EJBs). EJBs are a means through which resources, data and/or applications can be utilized within certain rule sets, and through utilizing these certain tools cause any particular content to be presented to a user in any particular manner. Accordingly, EJBs can search an Intranet and/or the web for particular utilities required to present the content. For example, if a user desires to see a movie play on his computer screen, the request for the movie might encounter a JSP accessing an EJB that searches for a movie-playing utility, such as a Real Player decoder, to play the movie to the user.
An advantage of using Java-based applications is that they are not confined to a particular platform. Each platform, whether it is an IBM PC, a MAC, a UNIX platform or some other platform utilizes a JAVA virtual machine (JVM). A JVM executes code written in Java. Every machine executing a JVM can execute Java application, such as applications containing instructions for presenting web pages to users. As a result, a JAVA application need only be written once because it will execute on any platform with a JVM.
Despite the promise of the Internet, and web-based technologies in general, these technologies have not made their way into the television production and broadcast arena on a large scale. Thus, there have been no “cradle-to-grave” implementations of a broadcast environment. “Cradle-to-grave” refers to activity from the producer's original conception through the camera lens into the editing environment, transmission and ultimately to the viewer's screen, and includes information that may be sent back by the viewer. It includes every functionality that can be attributed to an environment that creates, manages and distributes media content via any number and/or types of distribution technologies; i.e., TV, Cable, DTH, Internet, Intranet, Wireless, and others.
There have been a few systems and/or standards-based approaches designed to provide interfaces to legacy systems. These systems use middleware and/or XML standards based implementations to provide these interfaces. A number of such middleware system are based on the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) standard. For example, J2EE-based middleware implementations are provided by Sun's Planet One, IBM's Websphere and Bea System's Weblogic. Bea's Weblogic System is commonly considered best-of-breed and has the largest market share at this time. The middleware provides the interfaces to legacy systems, applications and data by providing the entire rule sets as well as network and application interfaces, XML implementations and functionality for a particular system and/or application. The interfaces allow a unified approach to the simultaneous control and utilization of numerous legacy systems so that they can be utilized in a singular, scalable, profile-driven implementation. That is, they draw the functionality of the legacy systems into a J2EE environment so that an Enterprise Intranet and/or web-based technologies can access them. In addition, where utilities or other data are required, the J2EE environment describes where to get them. In addition, new technologies such as XML facilitate moving data between legacy systems and web-based environments that access them. However, there are no systems that integrate the various broadcast equipment, legacy support systems and/or distribution systems to provide integrated cradle-to-grave functionality for synchronous distribution of object oriented media products across various distribution platforms to provide scalable, profile-driven and/or interactive media products.